Map 8: Brazil Destruction During Operation Rainbow

A road in Beit
Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, destroyed by the rear blade known as the
"ripper" of a CAT armored bulldozer, deployed by the IDF. - 2004
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

Damage to
the water system affected a water network that, according to UNDP and the
Palestinian Ministry of Planning, was already "old, worn and polluted."[268]According to the RafahMunicipality, thirty-six out of
fifty-five kilometers of water pipes were damaged in the neighborhoods of Tel
al-Sultan, Brazil
and Salam.Twenty-seven out of
thirty-five kilometers of sewage pipes were damaged in the same area.[269]

The
destruction of water and sewage pipes, and especially their mixing, may lead to
waterborne disease.Indeed, traces of
polio have been detected in the water supply.[270]According to the UN, some seventy percent of
common illnesses in the area stem from water pollution.[271]

IDF tanks
and bulldozers also caused extensive damage to the electrical grid, breaking
electricity poles, cutting wires and destroying transformers.According to the Gaza Electrical Distribution
Company (GEDCO), the cost of damage to the electrical infrastructure was U.S.
$150,005.This destruction comes on top
of repeated damage over the past four years.The GEDCO transformer near Salah al-Din gate, for example, has been
damaged or destroyed eight times since September 2000.[272]

Without
electricity during the operation, the water wells and waste water pumping
station in Tel al-Sultan could not function, and the municipality needed UNRWA
and ICRC help to get a technician to the area with fuel for the generator.[273]The main pipe lines to Rafah were undamaged,
but no water made it to Tel al-Sultan for ten days.Three young men were shot by Israeli snipers
on May 19, and one of them killed, when they went outside in violation of a
twenty-four hour curfew to fill bottles with water (see case of Abu Libda
family above).

As discussed
above, destruction of roads on the general assumption that such threats existed
everywhere contravenes principles of international humanitarian law.And in addition to the protection for
civilian property normally granted under humanitarian law, water and sewage
infrastructure is especially important due to their importance to the survival
of the civilian population.As Article
54(2) of Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions states:

It is
prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable
to the survival of the civilian population, such as drinking water
installations and supplies and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of
denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the
adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians,
to cause them to move away, or for any other motive.[274]

At different
times, the IDF has given three rationales for road destruction: To clear a path
free of IEDs, to sever wires used to detonate IEDs[275],
and to protect against suicide car attacks.[276]The manner in which the roads were destroyed,
however, was not consistent with the stated intents.

In Rafah,
the IDF used a blade on the back of the Caterpillar D9 called the "ripper" to
destroy roads (see Box
5).In the West Bank and
other parts of Gaza,
the IDF has frequently dragged the ripper across a street to create a speed
bump or barrier to block suicide attacks.But in the May incursions, the IDF dragged the ripper down the middle of
streets, creating a long line of broken asphalt and dirt.Because the ripper can penetrate 1.7 metes
(five feet, five inches) into the ground, it severed water and sewage pipes
along the way.

It is
unclear how use of the ripper in this manner would clear IEDs because the blade
is on the bulldozer's back.On the
contrary, ripping up paved roads might have facilitated the planting of
explosives as debris can be used to conceal an explosive device.

Speed-bumps
caused by the ripper when dragged across a road can be an effective way to
hinder suicide bombers, and Human Rights Watch researchers observed such
speed-bumps throughout Gaza,
outside of Rafah, in close proximity to settlements and IDF positions, like
checkpoints.The use of the D9 ripper to
destroy down the middle of the street, however, merely divides the road into
two lanes and is ineffective at slowing down high-speed vehicles on roads such
as those destroyed in Tel al-Sultan and Brazil, which are approximately ten
meters wide and were designed for two-way traffic.

Razing Agricultural Land

The IDF also
systematically destroyed two large agricultural areas in Tel al-Sultan, both
filled with greenhouses for fruits, flowers and vegetables.In total, D9 bulldozers razed 298 donums
(29.8 hectares) of land.[277]

Satellite
imagery shows the areas of greenhouses replaced by barren land.Human Rights Watch
researchers visited both plots, now filled with dirt mounds and crumpled metal
frames.Both areas are more than one
kilometer away from the border and not near any Jewish settlements.

A barren wasteland is all that remains of
nearly 30 hectares of agricultural land that had been filled with greenhouses
containing fruit, flowers, and vegetables before it was destroyed by the IDF.
2004 Fred Abrahams/Human Rights Watch

[274]The prohibition does not apply
if such objects are used solely as sustenance for enemy armed forces or if they
are being used to directly support military action, though "in no event shall
actions against these objects be taken which may be expected to leave the
civilian population with such inadequate food or water as to cause its
starvation or force its movement" (Protocol I, Art. 54(3))."As regards the objects which are especially
protected, the Conference mentioned agricultural areas for the production of
foodstuffs, drinking water installations and supplies, and crops, which should
be interpreted in the widest sense, in order to cover the infinite variety of
needs of populations in all geographical areas" (ICRC, Commentary to Protocol
I, p. 655).

[275]
Letter from Major Sam Wiedermann, Head of International Organizations Desk, IDF
Spokesperson's Unit, to Human Rights Watch, August 22, 2004.